X-Files episode
Series:	The X-Files
Original Airdate:	May 6, 1994
Production Number:	1x22
Date(s):	Unknown
Written by:	Chris Ruppenthal
Directed by:	David Nutter
Episode chronology Previous Next Born Again The Erlenmeyer Flask
Season 1
Pilot Deep Throat Squeeze Conduit The Jersey Devil Shadows Ghost in the Machine Ice Space Fallen Angel Eve Fire Beyond the Sea Gender Bender Lazarus Young at Heart E.B.E. Miracle Man Shapes Darkness Falls Tooms Born Again Roland The Erlenmeyer Flask

The agents encounter a mentally handicapped janitor who is the only suspect in the murders of two propulsion research scientists, but the evidence of advanced theoretical work astounds Mulder and Scully as to the killer's real identity.

SummaryEdit

At the Mahan Washington Institute of Technology, in Colson, Washington, mentally handicapped janitor Roland Fuller is being scolded by research scientist Dr. Keats for forgetting how to use the facility's keycard locks. Keats then walks in on his colleagues, Nollette and Surnow, as they are engaged in a heated discussion. The latter two men are arguing over their latest project, a prototype jet engine. Nollette wants to push testing of the engine to break mach 15, but Surnow is unwilling to risk damaging the prototype. Keats and Nollette leave, angry, whilst Surnow continues his mathematical work on a whiteboard. He then visits the facility's wind tunnel to make some adjustments—however, Roland is still in the control room, and turns the tunnel's turbines on, which draw in Surnow to his death.

FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are brought in to investigate the death. Scully notes that another member of the research team died several months earlier, and believes it to be a case of industrial sabotage. Mulder examines the handwriting on the whiteboard and concludes that it has been written by at least four different people, leading him to suspect that a fourth individual was present. Keats and Fuller both inform the agents that Roland Fuller was the only one left in the facility at the time of Surnow's death, but do not believe him to be capable of murder.

Nevertheless, Mulder and Scully visit the care home where Roland lives, finding him applying stickers to a sheet of paper with a number written on it several times. They gently ask him about the night of the murder, and he tells them he had not seen anything out of the ordinary. He also inadvertently reveals his mathematical prowess by rapidly counting the stars visible on Scully's blouse; however, his handwriting does not match the fourth sample at the facility. The discussion ends when Roland experiences a violent vision and has what seems to be a fit; his carer asks the agents to leave while she attends to him. Later that night, Roland has another vision, seeing someone killing Dr. Keats.

Back at the facility, Keats is working late. He does not notice Roland entering the room, and is bludgeoned unconscious with a coffee cup before Roland submerges his head in a tank of liquid nitrogen, killing him. Keats' frozen body is left to shatter as Roland begins typing at one of the computers. The next day, the agents are investigating the murder when they notice that the computer had been used for five hours after Keats' death. Attempting to open the file that was being worked on, Mulder realises that the number Roland had written on his page the previous day is the computer's password. The file turns out to be the work of Arthur Grable, the scientist who had died several months earlier, and it had been worked on constantly since his death.

Looking into Grable's death, the agents find that it was him who had hired Roland. They begin to think that Grable faked his own death and is killing his former colleagues, using Roland as a patsy. Grable's body was never brought to the morgue, nor was a funeral ever held. However, Dr. Nollette brings the agents to a neuropreservation facility where Grable's remains are being stored, proving that he is not the one responsible. A photo of Grable is found, and he appears identical to Roland—leading the agents to discover that the two were actually twins. Speaking to Roland again, Mulder becomes convinced that the janitor is being controlled by the mind of Grable.

Meanwhile, Nollette sneaks into the cryogenic facility and tampers with Grable's storage unit, thawing his remains. He returns to the Mahon Institute, and is in the process of pushing the prototype engine to mach 15 when Roland enters. Nollette admits to stealing Grable's work, and is about to shoot Roland, intending to claim self-defence, when he is struck with a computer keyboard and dragged into the wind tunnel. The agents arrive in time to convince Roland not to kill Nollette. Roland is removed from the care home and taken to a psychiatric institute for testing, apparently now free of Grable's control.

Background InformationEdit

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

CastEdit

Guest StarringEdit

• Željko Ivanek as Roland Fuller/Dr. Arthur Grable
• Micole Mercurio as Mrs. Stodie
• Kerry Sandomirsky as Tracy
• Garry Davey as Dr. Keats
• James Sloyan as Dr. Frank Nollette

Co-StarringEdit

• Matthew Walker as Surnow
• Dave Hurtubise as Barrington
• Sue Mathew as Lisa Dole

ReferencesEdit

SEMICOLON-SEPARATED LIST OF ITEMS/LOCATIONS REFERENCED IN EPISODE (BUT NOT LINKED TO IF ALREADY LINKED IN SUMMARY OR GUEST STARS SECTIONS)